The Rev. Herb Eplee explains how he was awakened at 3 a.m. Wednesday by a Lawrence police officer notifying him that the rear window of his 1992 Pontiac Bonneville had been shot out. Police on Wednesday arrested three juveniles connected with a vandalism spree resulting in at least 24 criminal damage reports. Most reports were of damage done by BBs.

The Rev. Herb Eplee would like to have a few words with the boys suspected of shooting out the back window of his car overnight Tuesday.

“I’d like to take them into some of the places I’ve been, where their pot sits beside their bed and they have 20 years to spend there,” said Eplee, who has ministered to inmates in jails and prisons.

Eplee, pastor at Lawrence Faith Foursquare Church, 4120 Clinton Parkway, was one of several people who were awakened by police during the night and informed that their vehicles had been vandalized.

Lawrence police arrested three boys and are looking for another boy and a man, police spokeswoman Kim Murphree said. Police took at least 24 criminal damage reports. Vehicles parked in scattered areas of the city appeared to have been struck by projectiles fired from a BB gun, Murphree said.

The vandalism spree came to an end after one of the victims saw one of five occupants in a car shoot something at his vehicle. He then followed the suspects to the 200 block of East 21st Street, according to police accounts.

Police arrived in the area and found the suspects’ vehicle but no occupants. During a search, police found three boys running in the 1900 block of Rhode Island Street and arrested them early Wednesday morning. They were taken to the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center and booked on a total of 17 counts of criminal damage.

Inside the car used by the suspects, police confiscated a BB pistol, several BBs and empty CO2 cartridges.

Among the areas where vandalized vehicles were found: 2500 block of West 31st Street, 2200 and 2700 blocks of Harper Street, 1200 block of Prairie Street and the 1000 block of Pennsylvania Street.

It was not clear Wednesday whether all of the charges stemmed from shooting incidents Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Early Tuesday morning, police received two reports of vehicles in southeast Lawrence damaged by BB guns.

Eplee, 69, who lives in the Easy Living Mobile Home Court, 3323 Iowa, said an officer woke him up at 3 a.m. Wednesday after discovering the damage to Eplee’s 1992 Pontiac Bonneville.

Eplee doesn’t have car insurance that covers vandalism. He thinks the damage will cost at least $1,000 to repair.

“We’ve just had everything fixed in it,” Eplee said. “It runs just like a new one.”